Is B stock a safe bet?

Yep, sold plenty of B stock over the years...seems to be as good a bet in terms of performance as the other mostly. Still it's good to know you've got a warranty though. Yes, I'd buy B stock if need be, and I've worked in high end for many many years. Enjoy...

I have owned a few b stock items along the road. I did have a denon dvd 2900 that I had to send in for servicing because it stoped reading SACD. It was still under waranty at that point, so I guess it was ok...It took 2 months to fix though.

I used to work at an audio store 10 years ago. At the time a 3-letter British mid-fi manufacturer had a lot of problems with their brand new recievers/integrated amps. The brand new ones that were sold and came back (about 4 out of 10) were sent to our in house technicians who would fix them all up and give them proper bias adjustments and calibrations. In fact, these "B" stock items were BETTER than brand new, same warranty and 30% off. I still like those mellow sounding but gutsy and plenty of amp little guys.....

I have had good luck with "B Stock", or as they used to say "Factory Seconds". Sometimes it just means that the manufacturer made too many, and needs to clear inventory without reducing MSRP. But do be sure it comes from an authorized dealer. If it was a "demo" it is "broken in" for you.

I like the phrase bet in your title, that indicates a risk, and that's what your are getting when you buy b-stock. I would guess that b-stock gear has a higher chance of coming into another problem down the road but is the discount worth the added risk? I think it would depend on the manufacturer/

Would anyone make a $500 wager that your 3910 will break down within 3 years? No way! Get the b-stock and buy some DVDs with the $500!

Beware of sellers on Agon who list an item as "new" but don't disclose that it's B stock.

B-stock is checked completely. Sadly, all gear coming off production lines are not checked completely. Having been in the business in the past, I assure you that the best values and most carefully checked products are B-stock and refurbished gear.

I am sure that if you ask enough people there will be a bad story or two, but part of me likes the idea of "B" stock from the veiw of a serviced item returned to sell..... because I feel its flaws have been revealed and resolved, in alot of ways a "B" stock unit gets more testing and careful inspection then products that role off a line, and those can and do good bad. There is even statistics that suggest that as many as 1 in 5 Audio/Video componets have something wrong from the start, I have a dealer that sells NAD in my area and he goes as far as bench testing every single peice he sells, not that NAD has any more problems then others, it is just that it is almost routine to get a unit with some kind of flaw in it now and then BTW he sells Dennon also aswell as Definitive Tech and McIntosh.
Before I drift too far from a simple answer, I dont personally see any reason not to buy "B" stock from an AUTHORIZED dealer.